Ditto Steven, but I ask more rudely than he did.posted by ibmcginty at 5:38 PM on November 9, 2007

Hmm, from the "About Us" section:

Serein was established on the 19th of October, 2005 as a venture for promoting musicians and their work online. A so called 'net-label', we release our music in MP3 format under the creative commons license for free. Releases are grouped identically to how you would expect a record label's catalogue to be organised. In the music section you will find releases listed with a catalogue number (ser000) identifying each unique release. Within each of these are links to music files and artwork, with the option to download the whole pack as a compressed zip file.

We largely concentrate on releasing experimental, ambient and electro acoustic compositions but enjoy a vast array of musical styles and hope to keep you on your toes. If you would like to get a taste of the Serein sound before downloading anything, launch the streaming flash player located on the left hand column of this site.

Maybe this is/was a prominent website, or something.posted by ibmcginty at 5:39 PM on November 9, 2007

And he's helpfully put a whopping twelve tags that explain precisely what this is, guys. If clicking the link is too painful, look over to your right.posted by middleclasstool at 5:44 PM on November 9, 2007 [3 favorites]

From this I would gather that Serein is a Welsh site that puts up free mp3s of experimental ambient and electro-acoustic music under the creative commons license. That's the story, context, and angle, and it's enough info if you do or don't like electro.

And if clicking a mouse button once to look at the tags is too much to ask of you, you could just skip the post entirely. After all, you did take the time and keystrokes to come in here and comment twice about how much you hate his posting style, which I'm guessing took more time and energy.posted by middleclasstool at 5:59 PM on November 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

And this is about what?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:31 PM on November 9 et al.

Oh for christ's sake, guys, its a web record label, ok? They release avant garde electronic music from a group of musicians. Two clicks would have told you that. I had listened to two songs from two artists on that site before the first comment got posted here.

As for hama7's posting styles irritating everyone, well, the irritating thing about them seems to be that they are too short, right? So it shouldn't be too much trouble to zip right by them. I happen to like these posts - they are minimalist and esoteric, like the subject matter in the links.

And unlike much of what ends up on the front page, I don't see hama7's posts on reddit or digg or other sites I check first, so he/she is exposing me to sites I would not otherwise see.

Not every fpp has to read like a wikipedia entry. Let's apply our minds to the task a bit, shall we? This isn't fucking television.posted by Pastabagel at 6:00 PM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Seconding shit post. Happy to take the time to say so, tags or not, having had the living shit annoyed out of me by the micrographic textual diarrhea on their website. Sadly, if Serein holds any allure, a post in the hands of many other of our more prolific users might have actually explained why I, as someone that loves Ambient since my first Eno LP at ate 13, should like, rather than loathe, them.posted by docpops at 6:03 PM on November 9, 2007

But to focus on the music for a moment, it's lovely - reminds me very much of the kind of mood Fennesz evoked on his Venice album. Well the first track anyhow. Downloading the rest for later.posted by fleetmouse at 6:13 PM on November 9, 2007

I like my information devoid of excess adjectives, thanks. One of the FPPs today was 900+ characters long and could have been cut down by half. It was also devoid of any meaningful tagging meta information.

This website for this link seems like its design is stuck somewhere around 1998.posted by meehawl at 6:23 PM on November 9, 2007

Sadly, if Serein holds any allure, a post in the hands of many other of our more prolific users might have actually explained why I, as someone that loves Ambient since my first Eno LP at ate 13, should like, rather than loathe, them.
posted by docpops at 9:03 PM on November 9

What makes this music interesting is that the songs contain both music and ambience, i.e. sound that places the music in a context other than that which would be indicated by the music alone. For example, the first track on Nest, "Lodge", is a nice little piano etude, very conventionally accessible, not experimental or anything like that. It's contemplative and melancholy.

But there are sounds in the track that bring you elsewhere, creaking and clicking, electronic noises, etc. We are somewhere other than in front of a piano. Then there are the exhaled breaths. Who is breathing, and why are we hearing it?

Essentially, the music challenges the comfortable distance from the performer enjoyed by the listener. Much of art is born of pain, and the audience really only wants to acknowledge that pain cerebrally, not to experience it viscerally. We remove ourselves, both literally and figuratively, from the composer/performer to make this possible. We have our own pain, we don't want anyone else's. Most of us escape/hide from it, but the artist wants us to confront it. So we distance ourselves from the art and the artist. The performer or composer likewise needs to distance themselves from the audience because sharing that pain through art, esp. music, is a way to abstract and depersonalize that pain.

This music eliminates that distance. The listener experiences the music from the perspective of the performer with all the stress and tension that involves. There is an uncomfortable immediacy to this. The music is on top of us, as if we are crowding the pianist's personal space, we are hearing him perform. The music is the background noise, the sounds are the foreground. What began as a melody that imparted space has become confining and claustrophobic.posted by Pastabagel at 7:01 PM on November 9, 2007 [3 favorites]

I like aluminum, but ceramic pots are nice too.posted by nasreddin at 7:34 PM on November 9, 2007

I can't believe that after all this time, people are still complaining about hama7's posting style. It7s the same damn thing every time there's a hama7 post. You folks who hate his style, why not just leave it alone? Why not just ignore his posts? This has been gone over again and again. It's becoming absurd!posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:36 PM on November 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

Me like. Christ on a crutch, haters - flag it and move on, or don't. Whatever.posted by chinston at 8:46 PM on November 9, 2007

Seriously, this link, as with most hama7 links? Awesome. Haters, you're missing out, as haters usually do.posted by dirigibleman at 8:51 PM on November 9, 2007

No, c'mon. If a large number of comments in a particular posters posts have to do with the presentation (and particularly if they get favorited from other users!) the problem is not with the "haters", it's with the poster, and those comments should not be removed from the thread as "noise".posted by yhbc at 8:57 PM on November 9, 2007

Which, by the way, a lot of comments were from this thread. Including one I marked as a favorite.posted by yhbc at 8:59 PM on November 9, 2007

Very nice and thanks (though found some of the "white noise", crackles and pops a little irritating). Really like Quiet Words And Forgotten Trees. Good stuff.posted by sluglicker at 9:06 PM on November 9, 2007

I object to the baleeted comments only because I now look like a blowhard who went on for three comments in a row.

Well for a start I've not crufted the place up with meaningless single link posts, and i've not bitched about perfectly reasonable objections to that or made any stupid arguments like "well you could just click on it" or "hey, it's got tags!".posted by Artw at 6:41 AM on November 10, 2007

(1) Your contribution to the site is characterised by absence of action;
(2) Objecting to the form of a post is perfectly reasonable, but objecting to those objections is "bitching".

Sans sarcasm, my point is this: hama7 has been consistently posting interesting links for over five years. Sure, their posting style is unique and thus attention-grabbing in all kinds of ways negative or positive. But one can hardly escape the notion that their contribution to the community has been outstanding.

Not that the sky is falling, but it does seem to me that hama7 posts used to be met with more appreciation and/or active discussion, and that recently in-thread complaints about the form have increased steadily, and I feel that such structural derailing can take away from the quality and enjoyment of a thread. Taketheseexamples from the archives, and compare them to this thread and another recent one.

Moreover, the way Metafilter works, if a post somehow doesn't fit the bill in the eyes of the community of users then either (1) Matt, Jess, or cortex axes it outright, at their discretion; (2) it will be flagged from all sides and one of the admins evaluates its merit; (3) it is discussed in MetaTalk, as has happened recently. As far as I can tell, the first two don't really happen with hama7's posts, and the MeTa thread generated some heated debate, but that's it.

Now, I feel it's wholly understandable that posts like these garner confusion and criticism: to be perfectly honest, I'm not a big fan of the style myself. But the above to me seems like a strong indicator that hama7 posts are here to stay.

What strikes me most about these complaints is the bizarre externalisation that seems to be going on: one would almost suspect that hama7 is personally coming into your house and making you read his minimalist posts and forcing you to comment at gunpoint.

No they aren't, you make the decision to click into the thread, you decide you don't like it, you decide, independently and autonomously, not to just. move. on.

So in short, I'd like a little more explanation myself once in a while, but I also believe we don't need our hands held with every patronisingly spelled-out post; that variety (in form as in content) is the spice of Metafilter; that a disproportionate amount of discussion of said form in-thread can ruin the discussion; and that people can continue to criticise every hama7 post from now till Kingdom Come, but it would be tilting at windmills.posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:51 AM on November 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

seriously, all you that are complaining, PLEASE FUCK OFF. and leave these threads to the people who enjoy them.

thanks hama7 for another interesting link.posted by PugAchev at 9:39 AM on November 10, 2007

goodnewsfortheinsane - well, you asked.posted by Artw at 12:39 PM on November 10, 2007

Yeah, I skipped over the obscure single link. But then when I realized it was an obscure single link from hama7, I clicked on the thread just for the entertaining bickering. Thanks guys!posted by salvia at 1:05 PM on November 10, 2007

I was annoyed by a previous post of hama7's, which required some degree of searching just to find out that the post had something to do with music and thus I could safely relegate it to the world of ignorable things. No number of other Metafilter users piling on and telling me I'm stewphid will convince me I was wrong there. (And looking back on it, I remember its tags being a lot less descriptive.)

This one, at least, it's a lot easier to figure out that the linked to site concerns music.posted by JHarris at 3:02 PM on November 10, 2007

people can continue to criticise every hama7 post from now till Kingdom Come, but it would be tilting at windmills

Well, y2karl's posts got a lot of criticism for a long time, then he changed his style a little bit. Now everyone's happier! I only want people to be happy.posted by ibmcginty at 3:51 PM on November 10, 2007

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